Research

Reaching critical mass with publisher cooperatives

September 16, 2015

By Jay Stevens

The first publisher co-operative, La Place Media in France, launched three years ago. This coming together of a country or even region’s largest media owners (also known as an alliance or coalition) was innovative, admirable, enviable even – but, some people said, it could never work outside of the confines of its country of origin.

Fast forward to the present, and it seems liberté egalité fraternité is the phrase on the lips of publishers across the globe. Country after country is either launching its own co-op, or planning to. Nine are already live on the Rubicon Project platform alone. And the Pangaea Alliance, the first such alliance with a truly global focus, is just one of the latest to join them, alongside RPA Media Place in Argentina and KPEX in New Zealand.

As these premium publisher co-operatives hit critical mass, in this guide we look beyond the headlines at some of the numbers behind their success. Our aim is to understand their evolution so far, as well as the future development of this growing, global phenomenon.